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Post by Alex Krycek on Dec 10, 2008 12:32:47 GMT -5
Krycek, of course, was completely oblivious to the fact that Mulder happened to know that particular pink-haired personage and was not entirely sure he understood Mulder's interest in this.
"I'm not sure. Maybe 8, 8:20 something?" He wondered for the first time how that girl had gotten her hair so pink. He hadn't thought hair dye had existed in this century, but had been told otherwise by someone he'd met here. Still, pink was a little extreme. It occurred to him that if Mulder were also here, there might be others from their time, or other times still. The thought was a little unsettling.
"You know, I think the real difference between us is that you'll still date a woman with dyed hair..." he said with a sheepish smile with an undertone of seriousness, considering what exactly Krycek had in mind.
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Post by Fox Mulder on Dec 10, 2008 12:44:02 GMT -5
Mulder, who had not actually been on a date in a really long time, unless you counted stake outs, which Scully didn't so he didn't, thought this statement was a little strange. Enough that it distracted him slightly from his worry about Emilie.
"Oh, we're not dating," he said obscurely. "But that's beside the point. Why would you? It's just hair."
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Post by Alex Krycek on Dec 10, 2008 13:01:52 GMT -5
"I'm not sure you can entirely trust her motives," said Krycek seriously but rather conversationally (without realizing that this constituted conversation; it was just his natural response to the question). "I mean, obviously it depends on the woman, but dyed hair is the first red flag to suggest she's not comfortable with herself or is trying to invent her persona or something. And I think it depends on the dye, you know, permanent or semi-permanent, the most permanent of which is bleach. Never date a platinum blond."
And of course he said this all with full knowledge of the humor involved, but there was something to the philosophy, he thought. Although a woman - or a man - could always be too natural. If he'd been a woman he might have been mildly concerned with the fact that Mulder's hair looked as though it had never seen a styling product in his life.
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Post by Fox Mulder on Dec 10, 2008 14:11:43 GMT -5
Mulder frowned. "What if she just thinks it fits her better? Or thinks her hair should be like her clothing or makeup, expressive?" Scully's hair had long been a mystery to him. It looked natural enough, but sometimes it just seemed... redder. Then again, she'd been in the hospital all that time and he doubted they had nurse beauticians. He'd made passing, teasing references to it in the past, but she'd never responded in a way that helped him. But that wasn't an answer in itself, because she could have been sensitive either to being teased as a child or embarrassed about dying it.
Scully was a sensible type of person, too, but that was no guarantee of anything. This could be her one vanity, her one fling. Then again, her sister had been a redhead.
All this thinking of Scully--who should be here, dammit, instead of Krycek--was getting him down. Without being aware of it, his mood was shifting, too; though he'd hardly been cheerful or friendly before, he hadn't looked downtrodden or hopeless. And he wasn't quite there yet, but usually when Scully was gone he found stupid stuff to occupy himself with to avoid words like "co-dependent" popping into his head.
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Post by Alex Krycek on Dec 10, 2008 14:30:34 GMT -5
Krycek shrugged, also unaware of the fact that Mulder was thinking of someone in particular, especially not that it was Dana Scully. Perhaps he should have thought of that, too, but he would have thought the same thing at the time - that her sister had red hair, too. Certainly it had been red enough for it to have caused himself and Luis Cardinale considerable difficulty. And somehow Krycek would have gotten the impression that Melissa Scully was not a good topic of conversation for himself and Fox Mulder to discuss.
"It's not an exact science. I'm sure that lots of other, sensible, expressive women dye their hair. But it's something to look out for, either way. If she has dyed hair and also shows other signs of two-faced-ness, then you might want to consider the relationship."
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Post by Fox Mulder on Dec 10, 2008 15:02:47 GMT -5
Mulder was suddenly bewildered that they were talking about relationships at all. When had this started? Why? They had spent all morning establishing their mutual loserdom and, what was more, proving that they shouldn't go out with people to begin with because people were normal. And they were not.
"I think the natural state of a woman's hair is the least of my dating problems," Mulder said. "Not that I have any."
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Post by Alex Krycek on Dec 10, 2008 15:12:47 GMT -5
Krycek would have grinned to know Mulder's train of thought. Mutual loserdom was not something most men would like to be a part of, it's true, but that Mulder thought of them as belonging to the same category of existence in anything at all was encouraging. As it was, he was grinning anyway.
"Of course you don't," he said easily. "It's the least of mine. However, if I had known more about the psychological implications of a woman's dying her hair, I might have had fewer dating problems in general. That's something."
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Post by Fox Mulder on Dec 10, 2008 15:48:10 GMT -5
Mulder was of the opinion that Krycek's observations about hair color would be immaterial to his chances of success, but he wasn't saying things like that aloud right now, because he'd promised to be good. Or implied that he could be, which to prove a point amounted to the same thing. Personally, Mulder thought Krycek should think more about the psychological implications of being an utter bastard.
"Well," he said instead. "I guess you're all set now, then. With a formula and all, for dating success. I hope it serves you well."
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Post by Alex Krycek on Dec 10, 2008 16:07:31 GMT -5
Krycek laughed shortly. "Yeah, of course. I wish things were that simple." Of course, the biggest dating problem he had he had found out from Marita, too, the fact that it was impossible to date when anyone could be used against you. Not that he had any intentions of sharing this with Mulder, as Mulder was doubtless likely to sneer at it. Besides, part of Mulder's behaving himself was Krycek's not saying things that would provoke him.
It was very obvious by this point that Krycek was preoccupied and did not want to talk about dating anymore, therefore it would probably not be a surprise to Mulder when Krycek changed the subject. "Where do you work? In Paris, I mean. Naturally."
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Post by Fox Mulder on Dec 10, 2008 17:20:43 GMT -5
Aside from not being surprised, he was relieved himself. Dating was not his forte (neither was marriage) and since Scully, everything had been sublimated into work. And her companionship--if that's what it was. Except for Kristen, of course, which he didn't want to count.
"Work?" he said. "I... don't, actually. Haven't had to, yet. Things just keep falling into line; I had some money when I got here and I haven't been living too high."
((Okay actually I have no explanation for this; like many other 'verse inserts, they just... survive. Sorry.))
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Post by Alex Krycek on Dec 10, 2008 17:25:36 GMT -5
((Which is what I intend my self-insert to do, but will probably fail at because I would go crazy.))
Krycek nodded, though he raised his eyebrows. "Explains a few things. I was going to wonder how you get past the language barrier, but there doesn't seem to be much of a problem in here." He gestured to the inn and then replaced his hand on the table. "I work at the docks. They hire a lot of foreigners for odd jobs and probably think I'm a sailor who leaped ship. No one looks twice at..." A gesture towards his arm, or lack of one. "You know."
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Post by Fox Mulder on Dec 10, 2008 18:47:55 GMT -5
"I speak French," Mulder protested. "I am an FBI agent who went to Oxford, you know." He frowned. "There do seem to be a lot of people who... don't belong, for lack of a better term." Now on that track, he sank his teeth in as if it were an X-File--which it was, in all but the most bureaucratic sense.
"This place... it's not just 19th century Paris," he said, leaning forward a little. "It seems to be... a point of convergence. For... anything and everything. A wormhole, a portal, something."
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Post by Alex Krycek on Dec 11, 2008 11:53:23 GMT -5
Krycek was somewhat surprised that Mulder spoke French - not so much because of that, but because he wouldn't have thought French the sort of language Mulder would choose to study in school - but Mulder's contemplative train of thought also threw him off a bit. He was not expecting Mulder to lean forward and speak to him what he was thinking. It seemed intimate, somehow. But then, reflecting, Mulder was always intimate. He was such an introvert in that sense that anyone who existed at all to him had to be let in, whether it was because he cared or because he hated you. Most likely, he didn't even notice what he was doing.
"The fact that you and I are here says as much," said Krycek, although not in a way meant to end the discussion. "Do you - did you have some idea as to what it really is? I've heard of people getting stuck in time, of them disappearing, and maybe this is where they all go...but," he said, voice getting softer unintentionally, "I have never heard of anyone coming back and naming this place."
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Post by Fox Mulder on Dec 11, 2008 13:44:37 GMT -5
((I'm only assuming he knows French because he clearly doesn't know Spanish! Either that, or he's lying. I love your reading of him, by the way.)) Mulder didn't notice, of course; the case was the important thing, and when he was fired up to talk about it very little existed. All he required was someone to listen. It just so happened that Scully was not only a sounding board--or at least, not anymore, and he didn't think he thought of her that way. "Sure, but you and I know each other, so the phenomenon might have been localized somehow--or to something else we're both connected with. This is far more widespread. All time periods, all kinds of things. As to coming back, maybe we don't know for some other reason. Memory loss, some kind of trauma. Maybe people go on with their lives without knowing. Maybe we've split off into some parallel dimension, and our other selves are still back there, no one the wiser. Or maybe this is just our astral bodies, projected into some other realm. We might be in comas. Or one of us is, imagining the other, though I discount that on the grounds that I'm clearly real and I wouldn't be imagining you."
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Post by Alex Krycek on Dec 11, 2008 14:15:18 GMT -5
((Thanks! I was worried I was jumping to conclusions but I figured that since it's Krycek's thoughts, it wouldn't matter.))
Krycek did not mind. He liked being Mulder's sounding board in this sense; he liked fitting into a niche, and considering the one Mulder usually allowed him, this was being extremely generous. The fact that Mulder could continue to mention him in his spiel showed that he wasn't just ignoring him and focusing on the matter at hand, but that he was, in some place or other, included in it.
He was impressed - in a mild, appreciative way rather than an awe-inspiring sense - by Mulder's quick summation. This was precisely what he expected of him, but it was unpredictable and unexpected at the same time. It lent a feeling of security that pondering on these things alone certainly hadn't, and Krycek was fairly certain he wouldn't have come up with all of that on his own.
"If this wasn't my physical body, I'd be using my left arm, severed or not," Krycek pointed out. "Didn't you once have a case like that? I think the parallel option makes the most sense." He looked very thoughtful as he considered these things. "It seems to best include all of the facts - that you and I are both here, at the same time, yet there are a good many other people around here that don't match 19th century Paris or 20th century Washington. And this is some odd amalgam of things that just happens to be mostly 19th century Paris, but is clearly not the 19th century Paris we know about."
His eyes refocused suddenly and he found himself looking on Mulder and smiling. "I think we might imagine each other," he countered. "Just, you know, under entirely different circumstances than..." He made another flippant gesture at their environment and current seating arrangement.
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